One document matched: draft-ietf-marf-as-08.xml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<!DOCTYPE rfc SYSTEM "rfc2629.dtd" [
<!ENTITY RFC1939 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.1939.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC2026 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2026.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC2119 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC2142 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2142.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC2505 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2505.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC2616 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2616.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC3464 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3464.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC3501 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3501.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC3912 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3912.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC4408 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.4408.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC5321 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5321.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC5322 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5322.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC5965 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5965.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC5598 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5598.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC5617 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5617.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC6376 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6376.xml">
<!ENTITY RFC6449 SYSTEM "http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6449.xml">
]>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="rfc2629.xslt" ?>
<?rfc strict="no" ?>
<?rfc symrefs="yes"?>
<?rfc sortrefs="yes" ?>
<?rfc compact="yes" ?>
<?rfc subcompact="yes" ?>
<?rfc comments="yes" ?>
<?rfc toc="yes" ?>

<rfc category="std" docName="draft-ietf-marf-as-08" ipr="trust200902"
     updates="5965">
	<front>
		<title abbrev="ARF AS">
			Creation and Use of Email Feedback Reports:
			An Applicability Statement for the Abuse Reporting
			Format (ARF)</title>
		<author fullname="J.D. Falk" initials="J.D." surname="Falk">
			<organization>Return Path</organization>
			<address>
				<postal>
					<street>
						100 Mathilda Street, Suite 100
					</street>
					<city>Sunnyvale</city>
					<region>CA</region>
					<code>94089</code>
					<country>USA</country>
				</postal>
				<!-- <phone/> -->
				<!-- <facsimile/> -->
				<email>ietf@cybernothing.org</email>
				<uri>http://www.returnpath.net/</uri>
			</address>
		</author>
		<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
			fullname="M. Kucherawy" role="editor">
			<organization>Cloudmark</organization>
			<address>
				<postal>
					<street>128 King St., 2nd Floor</street>
					<city>San Francisco</city>
					<region>CA</region>
					<code>94107</code>
					<country>US</country>
				</postal>
				<email>msk@cloudmark.com</email>
			</address>
		</author>
		<date year="2012"/>
		<area>Applications</area>
		<workgroup>MARF Working Group</workgroup>
		<keyword>arf</keyword>
		<keyword>marf</keyword>
		<keyword>abuse reporting</keyword>
		<keyword>spam reporting</keyword>
		<abstract>
			<t> RFC 5965 defines an extensible, machine-readable
			    format intended for mail operators to report
			    feedback about received email to other parties.
			    This document describes common methods for
			    utilizing this format for reporting both abuse and
			    authentication failure events.  Mailbox
			    Providers of any size, mail sending entities, and
			    end users can use these methods as a basis to
			    create procedures that best suit them. </t>
		</abstract>
	</front>
	
	<middle>
		<section title="Introduction">
			<t> The Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) was initially
			    developed for two very specific use cases.
			    Initially, it was intended to be used for
			    reporting feedback between large email operators,
			    or from large email operators to end user network
			    access operators, any of whom could be presumed to
			    have automated abuse-handling systems.
			    Secondarily, it is used by those same large mail
			    operators to send those same reports to other
			    entities, including those involved in sending bulk
			    email for commercial purposes.  In either case,
			    the reports would be triggered by direct end user 
			    action such as clicking on a "report spam" button
			    in their email client. </t>
				
			<t> Though other uses for the format defined in
			    <xref target="RFC5965"/> have been discussed (and
			    may be documented similarly in the future), abuse
			    remains the primary application, with a small
			    amount of adoption of extensions that enable
			    authentication failure reporting.  This memo
			    provides direction for both contexts. </t>
				
			<t> The purpose for reporting abusive messages is to
			    stop recurrences.  The methods described in this
			    document focus on automating abuse reporting as
			    much as practical, so as to minimize the work of
			    a site's abuse team.  There are further reasons why
			    abuse feedback generation is worthwhile, such as 
			    instruction of mail filters or reputation trackers,
			    or to initiate investigations of particularly
			    egregious abuses.  These other applications are
			    not discussed in this memo. </t>

			<t> Further introduction to this topic may be found
			    in <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
		</section>
			
		<section title="Definitions">
			<t> The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT",
			    "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
			    "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",
			    "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are
			    to be interpreted as described in
       			    <xref target="RFC2119"/>, and are intended
			    to replace the Requirement Levels
			    described in Section 3.3 of
			    <xref target="RFC2026"/>. </t>
			
			<t> Some of the terminology used in this
			    document is taken from
			    <xref target="RFC5598"/>. </t>
							
			<t> "Mailbox Provider" refers to an
			    organization that accepts, stores, and
			    offers access to <xref target="RFC5322"/>
			    messages ("email messages") for end users.
			    Such an organization has typically
			    implemented SMTP
			    (<xref target="RFC5321"/>), and might
			    provide access to messages through IMAP
			    (<xref target="RFC3501"/>), POP
			    (<xref target="RFC1939"/>), a proprietary
			    interface designed for HTTP
			    (<xref target="RFC2616"/>), or a
			    proprietary protocol. </t>
		</section>
			
		<section title="Applicability Statement">
			<t> [RFC Editor: please remove this section prior
			    to publication.] </t>

			<t> NOTE TO IESG: This document is part of the
			    experiment to reintroduce Applicability
			    Statements, as defined in Section 3.2 of
			    <xref target="RFC2026"/>, to the Applications
			    Area. </t>
		</section>
			
		<section title="Discussion">
			<t> [RFC Editor: please remove this section prior
			    to publication.] </t>
				
			<t> This document is being discussed within the
			    IETF MARF Working Group, on the marf@ietf.org
			    mailing list. </t>
		</section>
		
		<section title="Solicited and Unsolicited Reports">
		   <t>The original application of <xref target="RFC5965"/>,
		      and still by far the most common, is when two mail
		      systems make a private agreement to exchange abuse
		      reports, usually reports due to recipients manually
		      reporting messages as spam.  We refer to these as
		      solicited reports.</t>

		   <t>Other uses for ARF involve reports sent between parties
		      that don't know each other.  These unsolicited reports
		      are sent without prior arrangement between the parties
		      as to the context and meaning of the reports, so the
		      constraints on how these unsolicited reports need to be
		      structured such that the reports generated are likely to
		      be useful to the recipient, to what address(es) they
		      can usefully be sent, what issues the can be used to
		      report, and how they can be handled by the receiver
		      of the report are very different. </t>
		</section>

		<section title="Creating and Sending Complaint-Based Solicited Abuse Reports">
			<t> [These numbered items are not intended to be in a
			     paricular sequence.  The numbers are here during
			     document development to make it easier to idenify
			     the items for discussion, and will be removed
			     before publication.] </t>

			<t>
			    <list style="numbers">
				<t> A Mailbox Provider receives reports of
				    abusive or unwanted mail from its users,
				    most often by providing a "report spam"
				    button (or similar nomenclature) in the
				    MUA.  The method of transferring this
				    message and any associated metadata from
				    the MUA to the Mailbox Provider's ARF
				    processing system is not defined by any
				    standards document, but is discussed
				    further in Section 3.2 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>.  Policy concerns
				    related to the collection of this data
				    are discussed in Section 3.4 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>

				<t> The Mailbox Provider SHOULD process the
				    reports to improve its spam filtering
				    systems.  The design of these systems is
				    discussed in <xref target="RFC2505"/> and
				    elsewhere. </t>
							
				<t> The Mailbox Provider SHOULD send reports
				    to relevant parties who have requested
				    to receive such reports.  To implement the
				    recommendations of this memo, the reports
				    MUST be formatted per
				    <xref target="RFC5965"/>,
				    and transmitted as an email message
				    (<xref target="RFC5322"/>), typically
				    using SMTP (<xref target="RFC5321"/>).
				    The process whereby such parties may 
				    request the reports is discussed in
				    Section 3.5 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>.</t>
					
				<t> The reports SHOULD use
				    "Feedback-Type: abuse", but MAY use other
				    types as appropriate.  However, the
				    Mailbox Provider generating the reports
				    SHOULD NOT assume that the operator
				    receiving the reports will treat different
				    Feedback-Types differently. </t>

				<t> The reports SHOULD include the following
				    optional fields whenever practical:
				    Original-Mail-From, Arrival-Date,
				    Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
				    optional fields MAY be included, as the
				    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>

				<t> Ongoing maintenance of an ARF processing
				    system is discussed in Section 3.6 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>

				<t> Reports MAY be subjected to redaction of
				    user-identifiable data as described in
				    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION"/>. </t>
				</list>
			</t>
		</section>
			
		<section
		 title="Receiving and Processing Complaint-Based Solicited Abuse Reports">
			<t> [These numbered items are not intended to be in a
			     paricular sequence.  The numbers are here during
			     document development to make it easier to idenify
			     the items for discussion, and will be removed
			     before publication.] </t>

			<t>
			    <list style="numbers">
				<t> At the time this document is being
				    written, for the use cases described here,
				    mail operators need to proactively request
				    a stream of ARF reports from Mailbox
				    Providers.   Recommendations for preparing
				    to make that request are discussed in
				    Section 4.1 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
						
				<t> Mail operators MUST be prepared to receive
				    reports formatted per
				    <xref target="RFC5965"/> as email
				    messages (<xref target="RFC5322"/>) over
				    SMTP (<xref target="RFC5321"/>).  These
				    and other types of email messages that
				    may be received are discussed in
				    Section 4.2 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
						
				<t> Mail operators need to consider the idea
				    of automating report processing.
				    Discussion of this can be found in
				    Section 4.4 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
						
				<t> An automated report processing system MUST
				    accept all Feedback-Types defined in
				    <xref target="RFC5965"/> or extensions to
				    it, but implementers SHOULD NOT assume that
				    Mailbox Providers will make use of any
				    Feedback-Type other than "abuse".
				    Additional logic may be required to
				    separate different types of abuse reports
				    after receipt. </t>
						
				<t> Implementers SHOULD NOT expect all Mailbox
				    Providers to include the same optional
				    fields. </t>
						
				<t> Actions that mail operators might take upon
				    receiving a report (or multiple reports)
				    are discussed in Section 4.3 of
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>

				<t> Reports MAY be subjected to redaction of
				    user-identifiable data as described in
				    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION"/>.
				    This is also discussed in Section 4.4
				    of <xref target="RFC6449"/>.  Although
				    the end user causing the report to be
				    generated has been obscured, the report
				    processor SHOULD attempt to correlate
				    and prioritize reports that appear to
				    have been caused by the same end user as
				    it may be indicative of a problem
				    worthy of increased attention. </t>
				</list>
			</t>			
		</section>
		
		<section title="Generating and Handling Unsolicited Abuse Reports">
			<t> [These numbered items are not intended to be in a
			     paricular sequence.  The numbers are here during
			     document development to make it easier to idenify
			     the items for discussion, and will be removed
			     before publication.] </t>

		    <t> The following advice is offered for the case of
		        reports that are not solicited: 

		        <list style="numbers">
			<t>Systems that generate unsolicited reports SHOULD
			   ensure that the criteria used to decide what
			   messages to report accurately identify messages
			   that the reporting entity believes in good faith
			   are abusive.  Such criteria might include direct
			   complaint submissions from MUAs, reports triggered
			   by mail sent to "spam trap" or "honeypot" addresses,
			   and virus reports.  (These applications might be
			   described in future IETF documents.) Systems SHOULD
			   NOT report all mail sent from a particular sender
			   merely because some of it is determined to be
			   abusive. Mechanical reports of mail that "looks
			   like" spam, based solely on the results of inline
			   content analysis tools, SHOULD NOT be sent since,
			   because of their subjective nature, they are
			   unlikely to provide a basis for the recipient to
			   take action. </t>

			<t> MUAs SHOULD NOT generate abuse reports directly
			    to entities found in the message or by queries
			    to WHOIS or other heuristic means.  Rather, the
			    MUA should signal, by some means, the mailbox
			    provider to which it connects to generate such
			    a report. </t>

			<t>Report generators SHOULD send reports to recipients
			   that are both responsible for the messages and are
			   able to do something about them, and SHOULD NOT send
			   reports to recipients that are uninvolved or only
			   peripherally involved.  For example, they SHOULD
			   NOT send reports to the operator of every Autonomous
			   System in the path between the apparent originating
			   system and the operator generating the report.
			   </t>

			<t>Deciding where to send an unsolicited report will
			   typically rely on heuristics.  Abuse addresses
			   in WHOIS (<xref target="RFC3912"/>) records of the
			   IP address relaying the subject message and/or of
			   the domain name found in the results of a PTR
			   ("reverse lookup") query on that address are likely
			   reasonable candidates, as is the abuse@domain role
			   address (see <xref target="RFC2142"/>) of related
			   domains.  Unsolicited reports SHOULD NOT be sent
			   to email addresses that are not intended to handle
			   abuse rpeorts, including any personal or role
			   address found in WHOIS records or on a web site that
			   is not either explicitly described as an abuse
			   contact or is of the form "abuse@domain". </t>

		        <t>Where an abusive message is signed using a
			   domain-level authentication technology such as
		           DKIM (<xref target="RFC6376"/>) or SPF
		           (<xref target="RFC4408"/>), the domain that
		           has been verified by the authentication mechanism
		           is often a reasonable candidate for receiving
			   feedback about the message.  For DKIM, though,
			   while the authenticated domain has some
			   responsibility for the mail sent, it can be a poor
			   contact point for abuse issues (for example, it
			   could represent the message's author but not its
			   sender, it could identify the bad actor responsible
			   for the message, or it could refer to a domain
			   that cannot receive mail at all). </t>

		        <t>Similarly, if a report generator applies SPF
			   to arriving messages, and that evaluation produced
			   something other than a "Pass", "None" or "Neutral"
			   result, a report addressed to the RFC5321.MailFrom
			   domain SHOULD NOT be generated as it is probably a
			   forgery and thus not actionable.  A valid exception
			   would be specific knowledge that the SPF result
			   is not definitive for that domain under those
			   circumstances (e.g., a message that is also
			   DKIM-signed by the same domain, and that signature
			   validates). </t>

		 	<t> A report generator MUST provide a way for a report
			    recipient to request no further reports be sent
			    to that address and MAY provide a way for
			    recipients to change the address(es) to which
			    reports about them are sent. </t>

			<t>Recipients of unsolicited ARF reports SHOULD, in
			   general, handle them the same way as any other abuse
			   reports.  However, they MAY take advantage of the
			   standardized parts of the ARF format to automate
			   processing.  Lacking knowledge about the sender of
			   the report, they SHOULD separate valid from invalid
			   reports by, for example, looking for references to
			   IP ranges, domains, and mailboxes for which the
			   recipient organization is responsible in the copy
			   of the reported message, and by correlating
			   multiple reports of similar messages to identify
			   bulk senders.  </t>
					
			<t> Reports SHOULD use "Feedback-Type: abuse", but
			    MAY use other types as appropriate.  However, the
			    Mailbox Provider generating the reports
			    SHOULD NOT assume that the operator
			    receiving the reports will treat different
			    Feedback-Types differently. </t>

			<t> Reports SHOULD include the following optional
			    fields whenever practical: Original-Mail-From,
			    Arrival-Date, Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
			    optional fields MAY be included, as the
			    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>

			<t> Per Section 4.4 of <xref target="RFC6449"/>, 
			    a network service provider MAY use ARF data for
			    automated forwarding of feedback messages to
			    the originating customer. </t> 

			<t>Published abuse mailbox addresses SHOULD NOT reject
			   messages not in the ARF format, as generation of
			   ARF messages can occasionally be unavailable or
			   not applicable. </t>

			<t> Experience suggests use of ARF is advisable in
			    most contexts.  Automated recipient systems can
			    handle abuse reports sent in ARF format at least
			    as well as any other format such as plain text,
			    with or without a copy of the message attached.
			    That holds even for systems that did not request
			    ARF format reports, provided that reports are
			    generated with use by recipients not using
			    automated ARF parsing in mind.  Anyone sending
			    unsolicited reports in ARF format can legitimately
			    presume that some recipients will only be able to
			    access the human readable (first, text/plain)
			    part of it, and SHOULD include all information
			    needed also in this part.  Further, they SHOULD
			    ensure that the report is readable when viewed as
			    plain text, to give low-end ticketing systems as
			    much assistance as possible.  Finally, they need
			    to be aware that the report could be discarded or
			    ignored due to failure to take these steps in the
			    most extreme cases. </t>

			<t> Although <xref target="RFC6449"/> suggests that
			    replying to feedback is not useful, in the case
			    of receipt of ARF reports where no feedback
			    arrangement has been established, a reply might
			    be desirable to indicate that the complaint will
			    result in action, heading off more severe filtering
			    from the report generator.  In addition, using an
			    address that cannot receive replies precludes any
			    requests for additional information, and increases
			    the likelihood that further reports will be
			    discarded or blocked.  Thus, a report
			    generator sending unsolicited reports SHOULD ensure
			    that a reply to such a report can be received.
			    Where an unsolicited report results in the
			    establishment of contact with a responsible and
			    responsive party, this can be saved for future
			    complaint handling and possible establishment
			    of a formal (solicited) feedback arrangement. 
			    See Section 3.5 of <xref target="RFC6449"/>
			    for a discussion of establishment of feedback
			    arrangements. </t>

			<t> Unsolicited reports will have no meaning if sent
			    to abuse reporting addresses belonging to the
			    abusive parties themselves.  Reports SHOULD NOT
			    be sent to such addresses if they can be identified
			    beforehand. </t>

			<t> Handling of unsolicited reports has a significant
			    cost to the receiver.  Senders of unsolicited
			    reports, especially those sending large volumes
			    of them automatically, need to be aware of this
			    and do all they reasonably can to avoid sending
			    reports that cannot be used as a basis for action
			    by the recipient, whether this is due to the report
			    being sent about an incident that is not
			    abuse-related, the report being sent to an email
			    address that won't result in action, or the
			    content or format of the report being hard for
			    the recipient to read or use. </t>
		    </list></t>
		</section>
	
		<section title="Generating Automatic Authentication Failure Reports">
			<t> [These numbered items are not intended to be in a
			     paricular sequence.  The numbers are here during
			     document development to make it easier to idenify
			     the items for discussion, and will be removed
			     before publication.] </t>

			<t> There are some cases where report generation is
			    caused by automation rather than user request.
			    A specific example of this is reporting, using
			    the ARF format (or extensions to it), of messages
			    that fail particular message authentication checks.
			    Examples of this include
			    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING"/>
			    and <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING"/>.
			    The considerations presented below apply in those
			    cases. </t>

			<t> The applicability statement for this use case
			    is somewhat smaller as many of the issues
			    associated with abuse reports are not relevant
			    to reports about authentication failures. </t>

			<t> <list style="numbers">
				<t> Selection of the recipient(s) for reports
				    that are automatically generated MUST
				    be done based on data provided by the
				    report recipient, and MUST NOT be done
				    heuristically.  Therefore these reports
				    are always solicited, though the means
				    for doing so are not specified in this
				    memo. </t>

				<t> If the message under evaluation by the
				    Verifier is an ARF
				    (<xref target="RFC5965"/>)
				    message, a report MUST NOT be automatically
				    generated. </t>

				<t> When sending a new report via SMTP,
				    it is necessary to construct the message
				    so as to avoid amplification attacks,
				    deliberate or otherwise.  The envelope
				    sender address of the report needs to be
				    chosen so that these reports will not
				    generate mail loops.  Similar to Section 2
				    of <xref target="RFC3464"/>, the envelope
				    sender address of the report SHOULD be
				    chosen to ensure that no feedback reports
				    will be issued in response to the report
				    itself.  Therefore, when an SMTP
				    transaction is used to send a report, the
				    MAIL FROM command SHOULD use the NULL
				    return address, i.e.,
				    "MAIL FROM:<>". </t>

				<t> Reports SHOULD use
				    "Feedback-Type: auth-failure", but MAY use
				    other types as appropriate.  However, the
				    Mailbox Provider generating the reports
				    SHOULD NOT assume that the operator
				    receiving the reports will treat different
				    Feedback-Types differently. </t>

				<t> Reports SHOULD include the following
				    optional fields whenever practical:
				    Original-Mail-From, Arrival-Date,
				    Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
				    optional fields MAY be included, as the
				    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>
			    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="IANA" title="IANA Considerations">
			<t> [RFC Editor: please remove this section prior to
			    publication.] </t>
			
			<t> This document has no IANA actions. </t>
    		</section>

		<section anchor="Security" title="Security Considerations">
			<section anchor="sec-other" title="In Other Documents">
				<t> Implementers are strongly urged to review,
				    at a minimum, the Security Considerations
				    sections of <xref target="RFC5965"/> and
				    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
			</section>

			<section anchor="sec-fake" title="Forgeries">
				<t> Report generators that relay user
				    complaints directly, rather than by
				    reference to a stored message (e.g.,
				    IMAP or POP), could be duped into sending
				    a complaint about a message that the
				    complaining user never actually received,
				    as an attack on the purported originator
				    of the falsified message.  Report
				    generators need to be resilient to such
				    attack methods. </t>

				<t> Also, these reports may be forged as
				    easily as ordinary Internet electronic
				    mail.  User agents and automatic mail
				    handling facilities (such as mail
				    distribution list exploders) that wish
				    to make automatic use of reports of any
				    kind should take appropriate precautions
				    to minimize the potential damage from
				    denial-of-service attacks. </t>

				<t> Perhaps the simplest means of mitigating
				    this threat is to assert that these
				    reports should themselves be signed with
				    something like DKIM or authorized by SPF.
				    On the other hand,
				    if there is a problem with the DKIM
				    infrastructure at the Verifier, signing
				    DKIM failure reports may produce reports
				    that aren't trusted or even accepted by
				    their intended recipients.  Similar issues
				    could exist with SPF evaluation.  Use of
				    both technologies can mitigate this risk
				    to a degree. </t>
			</section>

			<section anchor="sec-amplify"
			         title="Amplification Attacks">
				<t> Failure to comply with the recommendations
				    regarding selection of the envelope sender
				    can lead to amplification denial-of-service
				    attacks. </t>
			</section>

			<section anchor="sec-autogen"
			         title="Automatic Generation">
				<t> ARF (<xref target="RFC5965"/>) reports have
				    historically been generated individually
				    as a result of some kind of human request,
				    such as someone clicking a "Report Abuse"
				    button in a mail reader.  In contrast, the
				    mechanisms described in some extension
				    documents (e.g.,
				    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING"/>
				    and
				    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING"/>)
				    are focused around automated reporting.
				    This obviously implies the potential for
				    much larger volumes or frequency of
				    messages, and thus greater mail system
				    load (both for report generators and
				    report receivers). </t>
	
				<t> Those mechanisms are primarily intended
				    for use in generating reports to aid
				    implementers of DKIM
				    (<xref target="RFC6376"/>),
				    ADSP (<xref target="RFC5617"/>), and
				    SPF (<xref target="RFC4408"/>), and other
				    related
				    protocols during development and debugging.
				    They are not generally intended for
				    prolonged forensic use, specifically
				    because of these load concerns.  However,
				    extended use is possible by ADMDs that
				    want to keep a close watch for fraud or
				    infrastructure problems.  It is important
				    to consider the impact of doing so on both
				    report generators and the requesting
				    ADMDs. </t>

				<t> A sender requesting these reports can
				    cause its mail servers to be overwhelmed
				    if it sends out signed messages whose
				    signatures fail to verify for some reason,
				    provoking a large number of reports from
				    report generators.  Similarly, a report
				    generator could be overwhelmed by a large
				    volume of messages requesting reports
				    whose signatures fail to validate, as
				    those now need to send reports back to
				    the signer. </t>

				<t> Limiting the rate of generation of these
				    messages may be appropriate but threatens
				    to inhibit the distribution of important
				    and possibly time-sensitive
				    information. </t>

				<t> In general ARF feedback loop terms, it is
				    often suggested that report generators
				    only create these (or any) ARF reports
				    after an out-of-band arrangement has been
				    made between two parties.  These extension
				    mechanisms then become ways to adjust
				    parameters of an authorized abuse report
				    feedback loop that is configured and
				    activated by private agreement rather than
				    starting to send them automatically based
				    solely on data found in the messages,
				    which may have unintended
				    consequences. </t>
			</section>

			<section anchor="multiple-incidents"
			         title="Reporting Multiple Incidents">
				<t> If it is known that a particular host
				    generates abuse reports upon certain
				    incidents, an attacker could forge a high
				    volume of messages that will trigger such
				    a report.  The recipient of the report
				    could then be innundated with reports. 
				    This could easily be extended to a
				    distributed denial-of-service attack by
				    finding a number of report-generating
				    servers. </t>

				<t> The incident count referenced in
				    ARF (<xref target="RFC5965"/>) provides a
				    limited
				    form of mitigation.  The host generating
				    reports can elect to send reports only
				    periodically, with each report
				    representing a number of identical or
				    nearly-identical incidents.  One might
				    even do something inverse-exponentially,
				    sending reports for each of the first ten
				    incidents, then every tenth incident up
				    to 100, then every 100th incident up to
				    1000, etc., until some period of relative
				    quiet after which the limitation
				    resets. </t>

				<t> The use of this for "nearly-identical"
				    incidents in particular causes a
				    degradation in reporting quality, however.
				    If for example a large number of pieces of
				    spam arrive from one attacker, a reporting
				    agent could decide only to send a report
				    about a fraction of those messages.  While
				    this averts a flood of reports to a
				    system administrator, the precise details
				    of each incident are similarly not
				    sent. </t>

				<t> Other rate limiting provisions might be
				    considered, including detection of a
				    temporary failure response from the report
				    destination and thus halting report
				    generation to that destination for some
				    period, or simply imposing or negotiating
				    a hard limit on the number of reports to
				    be sent to a particular receiver in a
				    given time frame. </t>
			</section>
    		</section>

	<section anchor="Acknowledgements" title="Acknowledgements">
		<t> The author and editor wish to thank
		    Steve Atkins,
		    John Levine,
		    Shmuel Metz,
		    and
		    Alessandro Vesely
		    for their contributions to this memo.  </t>

		<t> All of the Best Practices referenced by this document are
		    found in <xref target="RFC6449"/>, written within the
		    Collaboration Committee of the Messaging Anti-Abuse
		    Working Group (MAAWG). </t>
				
		<t> Finally, the original author wishes to thank the doctors
		    and staff at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
		    Center for doing what they do. </t>
    	</section>
</middle>
	
<back>
	<references title="Normative References">
      		&RFC2119;
		&RFC5321;
		&RFC5322;
      		&RFC5965;
      		&RFC5598;
    	</references>
	<references title="Informative References">
		&RFC1939;
		&RFC2026;
		&RFC2142;
		&RFC2505;
		&RFC2616;
		&RFC3464;
		&RFC3501;
		&RFC3912;
      		&RFC4408;
      		&RFC5617;
      		&RFC6376;
      		&RFC6449;

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING">
			<front>
			<title>Extensions to DKIM for Failure Reporting</title>
				<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
				        fullname="M. Kucherawy">
    					<organization>
                                         Cloudmark
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="January" year="2012"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-dkim-reporting" />
		</reference>

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION">
			<front>
			<title>Redaction of Potentially Sensitive Data from Mail Abuse Reports</title>
				<author initials="JD" surname="Falk"
				        fullname="JD Falk">
    					<organization>
                                         Return Path
					</organization>
				</author>

				<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
				        fullname="M. Kucherawy" role="editor">
    					<organization>
                                         Cloudmark
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="March" year="2011"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-redaction" />
		</reference>

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING">
			<front>
			<title>SPF Authentication Failure Reporting using
			       the Abuse Report Format</title>
				<author initials="S." surname="Kitterman"
				        fullname="S. Kitterman">
    					<organization>
                                         Agari Data, Inc.
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="January" year="2012"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-spf-reporting" />
		</reference>
	</references>
	</back>
</rfc>

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-24 02:55:13